


We'd Share Each Other Like An Island

by Magnetism_bind



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Anal Sex, Anxiety Attacks, Blow Jobs, Communication, Established Relationship, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, PTSD, Post-Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 05:41:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10802907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magnetism_bind/pseuds/Magnetism_bind
Summary: It's been a year since Thomas and James left the plantation and made a new home for themselves. Slowly they learn how to take care of each other once again.





	We'd Share Each Other Like An Island

It’s raining and Thomas can’t sleep. He leaves the warmth of their bed, James still slumbering peacefully for once, and goes out to stand on the long wooden porch. The air is damp and clean. He breathes in the night with deep breaths, letting it wash over him.

After the years in Savannah, after the years in Bethlem, he needs to be outside in the rain. He leans his head out from under the roof, letting the rain fall upon his hair, letting the quiet of the night enter him.

“Thomas?”

He turns his head to see James standing in the doorway, watching him.

“I’m fine, go back to sleep.”

Instead James over to stand beside him.

A flash of irritation pricks at Thomas. “I said I was fine.”

“Then why are you awake?” James is unperturbed at his faint sharpness. James isn’t perturbed over a lot these days, which Thomas finds both intriguing and astonishing. For a former pirate, he can be remarkably calm.

“Says the man who couldn’t sleep through a whole night the first three months we were here.” Thomas feels obliged to point out.

“True.” James murmurs, his eyes on the rain. “So what is it tonight?”

“The rain.” Thomas nods at the sky. He doesn’t have to say any more. James understands more than anyone could, how much he needs space to breathe these days.

James nods. “Would you prefer to be alone then?”

Thomas considers. Some nights he does prefer to be alone, and in the early days of their reunion, that had hard for James to understand. In the beginning, he had been so terrified of losing Thomas again that he could barely let him out of his sight. It had taken weeks of reassurance and lengthy conversations which had occasionally escalated, for they had both had passionate tempers before this, and they still had them now. Nothing had changed in that regard at least.

Now it’s been a year.They have a garden and there are plums in the orchard, and strawberries growing in the hedge. James stays up late, watching the stars, and Thomas wakes up early for the sun. In the afternoons they drink wine and rediscover each other’s bodies again and again in the drowsy heat until they’re sweaty and sated.

James will leave him now and go back to bed, if Thomas says that’s what he desires. He loves James so much for that understanding. But then there are rainy nights like this and Thomas’s mind is restless. The dark is vast and wide and beautifully terrifying. He wants to run wild, to remind himself that he’s alive.

He leans out into the rain again, letting it fall down his neck.

James moves up beside him. “What do you need?” He breathes.

Thomas straightens up, pushing back against him. “I need…you.” He turns his head and presses his entire body against James. “Here. Now.”

“There’s a bed.” James starts, but Thomas kisses him hard on the mouth.

“Now.” He says.

In response James presses him up against the porch railing, his hand sliding up inside Thomas’s shirt, sliding down over his back.

Thomas reaches for his linen drawers, drawing them down to his thighs.

“Oil.” James rasps.

“Spit.” Thomas counters.

James looks at him for a moment, and then he spits on his hand and roughly slicks his cock.

It’s tight and burns, as James enters him, each thrust sharp and intense inside him; Thomas craves it all. He wraps his legs around James and lets his head fall back in the rain as James mouths at his neck.

“Harder.” He whispers.

James moves then, like the fierce creature he is, the one he thinks he has to damp down these days. He lets it out to possess and claim Thomas as Thomas wants him to. He needs this from James, just as he needs the soft concern, the low laughter and the watchful eye when he strolls through the garden. He needs all of James; he wants all of James.

James wraps a hand around his cock and strokes him, making Thomas cry out quietly.

“There’s no one to hear for miles.” James says. “Let it out.”

So Thomas shouts his pleasure aloud, letting it fly away in the night.

They had specifically chosen this house for its isolation. Granted, they hadn’t exactly had this particular scenario in mind when they had rented it, but something of the nature had occurred to Thomas, and clearly to James as well.

He’s been quiet so for long, alone for so long. Now he’s here, he has James and they will be together for years to come, for the rest of their lives. Thomas firmly believes that. But there are moments of alarming panic, sudden rising anxiety that won’t always be easily quieted. When he fears something will take James from him again and he will be alone, so he has to _be_ alone until the fear subsides, until he breathes again.

The rain runs down his face; it matters little that the tears are lost in the dark of the night. 

“Thomas, Thomas.” James pulls him in, clutching him tighter to his chest as he finishes. Dimly Thomas is aware that he had spilled all over Thomas’s night shirt.

“Come back to me,” James murmurs. “Come back to me.”

“I’m here,” Thomas says, “I’m here, James.”  He kisses James’s mouth.

They pull each other off the railing and back under the porch roof.

 James shivers. “Are you?”

“I am.” Thomas kisses him again to reassure him. “Come, let’s get out of these wet things.”

He pulls James back to the bed and strips off his wet nightclothes, leaving him naked and gleaming.

“Now you.” James says.

Thomas obliges by pulling up his night shirt up over his head, and stepping out of his drawers, standing bare before him.

It might be a selfish satisfaction but he enjoys how James looks at him. Thomas had never thought himself particularly vain but he does want someone to find him attractive and James _does_. He still looks at Thomas as though it was ten years ago, as though it were that very first day and they could have fucked then and there on the steps where they met.

James had confessed that thought to him on the first morning after they had spent the night together.

“You could have taken me right there on the steps and I would have urged you on.”

It’s rare for James to be so bold, or rather, it takes a while to coax the boldness out of him. His manner had tended to be more shy, wry humor in those days and now he's a mix  of splendid sarcasm and wary affection and Thomas loves him so dearly it makes him feel giddy at time, as though they were both still young.

Now Thomas is completely enjoying the sight of James enjoying his body. He moves closer and James smooths a hand over his hip.

“I don’t mean to smother you.” He kisses Thomas’s chest. “Whatever you need, tell me, and I will do my best to give it to you.”

“I know you will.” Thomas drapes his arms around James’s freckled shoulders, smiling at him tenderly. “And you know, I hope, that I will do the same for you.”

James kisses his chest again.

It’s been a year. They will have more years together; Thomas knows this. He will bear with the doubts and anxieties as best as he can, take comfort and solace in James, body and presence, and they will live, glorious and free.

They will live, happily together.

He wraps his arms more firmly around James and breathes in the warm scent of his skin. James’s hair has long since grown back and Thomas reaches up to cup his head, sliding his fingers through it lovingly.

“If you keep doing that, you’ll have something else to deal with soon.” James murmurs, pressing against him meaningfully.

“You’re not as young as you once were.” Thomas murmurs back.

James just snorts with laughter. He’s still laughing as they lie back down upon the bed and Thomas draws the sheets over their legs and pulls him in close.

*  *  *

In the morning Thomas wakes first as he usually does. He watches James sleep, his chest rising and falling with each steady breath. The morning sunlight dances across his freckled skin that Thomas knows so well. Thomas can’t resist him like this so he slips under the sheets and between his legs.

James makes an appreciative sleepy murmur. His hand slides down to stroke at Thomas’s hair. Thomas leans into it but keeps mouthing at his cock.

James utters a soft wordless cry when he comes and Thomas swallows it, feeling the warmth of James inside and out, surrounding him, making him feel safe.

At last Thomas crawls out from under the covers and comes to rest atop James’s chest. “Good morning.”

“Morning.” James yawns and kisses him. “What was that for?”

“The start of another day.” Thomas says. “With you.”

James just smiles and lets his head fall back upon the pillow, drawing Thomas down to kiss him again.


End file.
